Water Cannons and Tear Gas Used Against Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters

Reuters photographer Stephanie Keith recently traveled to North Dakota to cover the ongoing protest against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a $3.8 billion oil pipeline meant to carry crude oil from the Bakken oil fields through the Dakotas and Iowa, to Illinois. Protesters from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, hundreds of other Native Americans and their supporters are now encamped near the Backwater Bridge, with law enforcement stationed behind a roadblock on the opposite side. According to Reuters, last night hundreds of protesters made attempts to force their way through the barricades, reportedly setting dozens of fires. They were met with water cannons, pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets, resulting in dozens of injuries. Below are images from last night, and some from the previous several days at the protest site.

Police confront protesters with tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, on November 20, 2016.#

Waskoness Pitawanakwat, 16, (left) from the Ojibwe tribe and Tea McGinnis ,18, from the Hupa tribe pose for a photograph in an encampment during the protest against the Dakota Access pipeline on November 20, 2016.#

Numpa Bald Eagle, 17, from Eagle Butte Reservation poses for a photograph inside his tent in an encampment during a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, on November 19, 2016.#

Snowmelt and last week’s “bomb cyclone” have overwhelmed rivers in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and neighboring states, causing widespread flooding that has broken dozens of records and cost at least three lives.